Graphics Test Finds HTML5 Struggles Against Flash On Android

A new benchmark test performed on a variety of Android mobile devices finds HTML5 struggling to match the performance of Adobe's Flash player in rendering many types of graphics and video seen in games. Interface developer Sean Christmann ran his newly developed GUIMark3 benchmark test on nine different Android mobile phones and tablets, tasking the hardware to render bitmaps, vector graphics, and complex graphical routines meant to mimic the kinds of graphics seen in many games. Across the tests, the HTML5 demos ran on average at roughly 50 to 60 percent of the performance of comparable Flash demos, as measured in observed frames per second. HTML5 seemed particular ill-suited to rendering vector graphics in the tests, with demos that ran at around 25 frames per second in Flash clocking in at under 10 FPS in HTML5 across Android phones. Tablets performed slightly better in rendering HTML5 graphics than their mobile phone counterparts, but Flash demonstrations on those same devices were much closer to the desired 30 frame per second threshhold. HTML5 has seen small but growing support from the industry, with game-related companies ranging from Disney and GameSalad to SPIL Games and Facebook showing interest in its potential for creating highly interactive web apps and games.